Integrity at the core of UEFA EURO 2024
Friday, July 19, 2024
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To help us deliver a clean tournament, free from the threat of match-fixing, UEFA developed a bespoke EURO 2024 anti-match-fixing action plan, combining education and prevention sessions with monitoring and intelligence.
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This successful initiative drew on lessons learnt from previous tournaments and comprehensive cooperation with other organisations.
Education sessions for all teams and officials
Education and awareness-raising among participating teams is a crucial step in the prevention of match-fixing in sporting competitions, and key to our efforts in preserving the integrity of EURO 2024.
Thanks to UEFA’s close work with national association integrity officers, all 24 teams attended tailored anti-match-fixing awareness sessions ahead of the tournament.
Tailoring this content for each audience is key to maximising its impact, and so UEFA's anti-match-fixing unit has developed a specific presentation for elite players, focusing on recent trends and cases as well as the importance of reporting any approaches related to match-fixing. The integrity officers then translated and adapted the presentation to each team’s national context.
Tournament match officials also attended a tailored integrity briefing during the referees’ preparatory workshop in Frankfurt in May. Considering the officials' elite level, the briefing was developed as a refresher course, focusing on the risks related to match-fixing approaches via social media as well as recent trends such as spot-fixing.
No integrity concerns identified at EURO 2024
To support in detecting and addressing match-fixing-related concerns and to help collect and analyse information, UEFA reconvened the anti-match-fixing assessment group that was initially established for EURO 2020, leveraging expertise from across Europe.
The group met regularly before and during the tournament, discussing key issues relating to past and forthcoming matches. It focused on betting reports, participant and match information, information received through reporting mechanisms and other sources, as well as local observations and media screening.
No suspicious betting activity was found nor were any other match-fixing concerns relating to matches at EURO 2024 raised.
Who takes part in the anti-match-fixing assessment group?
The group was composed of representatives from UEFA, the Council of Europe, the Group of Copenhagen, Europol, Interpol and seven national platforms (Belgium, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom). Additionally, Sportradar, the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), the United Lotteries for Integrity in Sports (ULIS) and Genius Sports advised the group. These advisors provided expert input from a betting monitoring and intelligence perspective.
There was particularly close cooperation with the National Platform of Germany – the group of stakeholders that work together to combat competition manipulation at a national level. Representatives from National Platform institutions were part of the assessment group, notably the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, the German Federal Police (BKA), the German betting regulator (Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder), the German Sports Betting Association (Deutscher Sportwettenverband) as well as the integrity officer of the German Football Association (DFB).
Fighting match-fixing through cooperation and collaboration
UEFA’s European football anti-match-fixing working group also held its annual meeting in Hamburg on 5 July.
The working group pulls together expertise from a range of organisations, with the core representatives (UEFA, Council of Europe, Group of Copenhagen, Europol and Interpol) joined by others from CONMEBOL, the International Olympic Committee, Sportradar, ULIS, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and representatives of the National Platform of Germany.
Integrity experts discussed the milestones and challenges of the past 12 months, as well as recent trends and how to jointly move towards potential resolutions. Particular focus was given to the results of UEFA’s three-year anti-match-fixing action plan, which concluded at the end of the 2023/24 season.
The discussion also centred on the importance of account level data in match-fixing investigations on a national and international level, and how to further streamline the process of obtaining such data, as well as the possibility of jointly raising awareness of gambling addiction among athletes.